PAMELA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CENTRE:

Most of the activities that we carry out involves a lot of women. This is because women in DRCongo are in the frontline of helping their families and they suffer so much since they are the victims in most dangers. During war,so many Congolese women were raped, some widowed and some suffered chronic diseases due to heavy luggages.Main challenge was that most were illiterate and it became so difficult for them to prosper. In helping them, we started training and educational programs on different topics so they can be independent. Since we did not have a hall or a place for the trainings, most of these sessions were carried out under trees. This was stressing to us because during the raining season it was difficult to learn due to poor weather and also during the dry season there was too much dust. We were forcing them to learn in those environments but it was difficult for them to endure.

By good luck and through Gods Grace, last year Stella Darmody came into MHCD and she accepted to support the construction of the centre. The centre is named after Pamela, Stella’s mother who had the passion to help other vulnerable women. All MHCD members and staff were very happy on the naming of the centre after Pamela, in remembrance of the good work that she did. We thank very much stella for accepting to support the project and helping us build the nice building that’s helping to serve the women.

Pamela community Development centre is a building with different rooms. It has a hall with a capacity of holding 400 people and its used as a training centre, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday as a cinema hall, we air educational movies to help the community and have some good time, It has an inside restaurant where participants will not be required to be catered for, it has a video studio with video and music equipment for sound and entertainment, has a small museum with photos, history of the centre and Congolese women photos. It has a reserve room especially for resting or for the women who might be coming with children as play rooms.

Besides the centre we built a women hostel called the WOODWARD PLACE. This hostel will be aiding the women coming to the seminar from far with accommodation. Women leaders coming for long trainings eg more than a week so they can sleep well. It also has a restaurant that shall be open every day and shall be a self help project for the women. When there are no trainings other visitors will be using the rooms and the centre will get funds to support itself. We called it a Woodward place in the memory of Woodward who was Stella’s Father. We again are so grateful to Stella for supporting the Woodward place construction

Since we completed the Pamela community centre and the Woodward place, they have brought a very big change in Uvira District especially Luvungi village. Before the construction, people held meetings and marriages under trees.It was very hard because during rainy season many were soaked in rain and leaves falling on them and then during the dry season, dust became too much. The youths and women never had any where to have leisure during weekends. Most people with some money had to go to Uvira or Bukavu for concerts or leisure activities.

MHCD has micro financing project where we give women some money or other commodities like pigs for the sake of fighting poverty but because we never had a Hall for training them before giving the goods or money to them .This was very challenging because most of our training was under trees or inside the Hospital. We thank very much Stella Darmody who fully supported the construction of Pamela community centre and the Woodward place.Today,the Luvungi population are so proud to have a place they can hold meetings and other functions.

In 2016,we had 8 weddings happening at the Pamela community centre. I remember when the bride, groom and their entourage entered the whole and saw how good it was, they were filled with joy.116 conferences and meetings dealing with microfinancing,agriculture,primary healthcare and community development.85 women learnt about tailoring and were given certificates making them independent in their lives. The graduation for the students at the computer school was help at the Pamela community centre and they were together with their parents and relatives and it was very joyful.120pupils learn from the Pamela community centre from Monday to Friday.Every sarturday night we have movie shows so the youth can have leisure.Every Sunday we have special prayer meetings for the sick at the Hospital.

The Woodward place received 240 women who came to learn on different topics that will make them to be self sufficient in life. Every month we used to get 20 women and were eating at the Stella restaurant. It also helps in accommodating medical Doctors who operate patients,MHCD visitors from Kinshasa, Australia and other places.All this are achievements that the Pamela centre,woodward place and stella restaurant managed to do in 2016.There are many other activities that happened in them that we are not including in this report. Again our sincere gratitude to Stella Darmody for the huge sacrifice. This is a great gift you gave to the Population of Uvira District and particularly Luvungi.They will never forget you.